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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

This one is a "go-to" in our house. It's fresh, healthy and has a little bit of a kick. It's super easy and basically uses the same ingredients as my previous recipe (the sausage and broccoli rabe soup below). I substitute broccolini for its spicier (and more bitter) cousin broccoli rabe most of the time. I also like to use hot italian turkey sausage, but feel free to use sweet as well. It whips up in no time and it's fabulous with some freshly-grated parm on top!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Ok, I'll be honest here... cooking whole pieces of meat scares me. I should say USED TO scare me. I've conquered something I always left to my mother, but really was the simplest and tastiest thing in the world. It's perfect for Sunday night "wind-down" dinner. What is this, you ask? There is nothing better in the world than putting together a comforting meal andcracking open a bottle of wine to wrap the weekend up on a Sunday night. It erases those Sunday night blues and gives you something look forward to as the weekend ends. Last night, our neighbors joined us for a beef roast and yorkshire puddings. I've never done either, and was a little worried at the outset. It turned out perfect thanks to quick working for the puddings and my handy-dandy meat thermometer to make sure I didn't overdo the roast (big fear there).

Preparation-Let roast warm up to room temperature on the counter.-Preheat oven to 375 degrees-Put roast in roasting pan, rub with olive oil, salt and pepper-Now cooking time will vary (for a boneless rib-eye, 1.5 hours - 2hrs at 350). I did the following, 15 minutes at 375, 1hr15 at 350, then 10 minutes at 375 (it came out a perfect medium-rare. Meat thermometer stuck into the thickest part of the roast should register about 135-140 for rare, 155 for medium.-Take roast out, allow to sit for 30-1hr (remember it keeps cooking when you take it out, tent foil over it to keep it nice and warm)

For a lovely red wine gravy do the following:-Pour a little fat off the drippings, pour rest into a bowl-Deglaze your roasting pan-dish by putting on stove-top, cranking the temp up to medium-high- add red wine to the pan and scrape...-once you've scraped most of those yummy bits up... pour it all into your drippings.-whisk in a Tbsp. of flour and serve!

Now - while the roast is going, whip-up the Yorkshire Pudding batter.

Yorkshire Puddings (source: The Best New Recipe from America's Test Kitchen)

Preparation:-Whisk together milk and eggs until combined in one bowl- Whisk together flour and salt together in another- Add flour mixture to milk mixture, whisk until just combined (you can let this sit out at room temperature for 1-3 hrs if needed)- After you take the roast out of the oven, raise temperature of oven to 450, close oven door. Take 1 Tbsp. drippings and whisk quickly into batter.- divide remaining 2 Tbsp. (1/2 tsp at a time) between 12 regular sized muffin cups- working quickly fill each cup 2/3 full of batter- bake at 450 for 20 minutes, 350 for 10 minutes (all without opening the door)- when done, prick each muffin with a toothpick so they don't fall and serve right away!

I served this all with a lovely Pinot Noir (Angelina, yum yummy!) and the following as a side (as a note, the spinach dish, it doesn't make much, JUST enough for 4 people I would say)

Remove large stems from spinach. Tear spinach into 1-inch pieces; place in a colander. Rinse spinach under cold water; drain. Set aside.

Place a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Add spinach; cover and cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Add cream cheese, oregano, salt, and pepper. Uncover and cook an additional minute or until cream cheese melts. Spoon spinach mixture into a 1-quart gratin dish or shallow casserole coated with cooking spray. Arrange tomato slices in a single layer on top of spinach,and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until golden brown.